Womenâ€™s struggles against compulsory Hijab in Iran will pave the way for
deepening the struggle against oppression and exploitation!

Womenâ€™s struggles against compulsory Hijab in Iran

will pave the way for deepening the struggle against oppression and
exploitation!

The recent uprising of the
Iranian people against Islamic regime of Iran has rightly targeted all fractions
of the regime. The main force of this uprising was the working class and those
who are driven out of the formal economy and the basic life. 40% of the
population and 70% of workers live under the poverty line. Unemployment is
estimated to be up to 40%. Workers wages have not been paid for several months
and in some cases even years. The class division has reached its highest level
as the lives and works of the people, national resources and the whole societyâ€™s
wealth is at the hands of a few who are in the circle of government or somehow those
connected to the government.

But there is another important
aspect to poverty. It has become very feminine. The phenomenon of women's
prostitution and street sleeping in Iran has reached its highest level.
Unemployment among women is increasing and is said to be three times higher
than men. While women who have jobs, their salaries are lower than those of
men. In the process of unemployment, female employees are easily sacked. Women
are the most deprived among the deprived, and this particular situation of
women in the society is not accidental. They are not only the most oppressed
but also the most exploited in the society. With the intensity of the
patriarchal relation in society, it can be expected that poverty has become so
feminine, and violence against women, to become more intense. Property relation,
domination and exploitation relations in the whole society are most evident and
most severe with women by all the oppressive laws and class relations. At the
center of these laws and property relations, is the law of the compulsory hijab.

About 40 years ago, Khomeini
built one of the most important foundations of his "Islamic
Revolution" on women's Hijab and made it the symbol and ideological flag
of their system. By declaring compulsory Hijab, the Islamic regime declared
unequal relations as the basis of its sovereignty and that the regime was based
on repression, discrimination, widespread violence and women's slavery. The
regime intended to force women to get used to being obedient, second class,
fearful and unaccounted, humiliated and insulted, and thus alienate them from
their identity and humanity. With compulsoryÂ
Hijab, this regime promoted an intensive patriarchal culture in the
entire society, and gave men more privileged status and special place both in
law and in culture and tradition more than before, so as to make women part of
their own private property.The depth and breadth of this violence on women in a society
that half are controlled by the other half, reflects patriarchal relations,
which directly connects to the dominant production relation in the society

Therefore, women not only play
a major role in the struggle, but because of the particular oppressions that
are imposed on them by anti-women laws, they are a special explosive force.

in today's turbulent scene, where all class forces
from the Us imperialists - with Trump/ Pence fascist regime on its top- to
patriarchal imperialists of Europe and Russia, who each seek their short and
long-term interests in Iran, it is imperative to remain conscious and struggle
for womenâ€™s freedom and equality. We have witnessed the hollow, populist and
highly opportunistic claims of these states to the struggles of the people and
the role of women in it, reflecting their reactionary aim to exploit the
struggles of the people, especially women. These governments that are the main
operators of the worldwide male-dominated capitalist- imperialist system based
on inequality, with gender inequality one of its foundations, and are now
presenting themselves as "advocates" of the people's protests and
women's rights in Iran.

As one of the most fundamental rights of women, the
issue of fighting compulsory Hijab in confronting the Islamic regime of Iran,
and the emergence of a political conscious struggle in public even by
individuals; out of everyday womenâ€™s resistance and struggle, must be one of
the important achievements for women's movement at this time. But women need a quick and serious advance with targeted plans in order
to sustain this achievement.

Without revolutionary organizations, and without struggle
for womenâ€™s freedom and equality, a new society in which all the people are
free from oppression and exploitation cannot be created. Itâ€™s time for women to
be united and organized and be at the forefront of a revolution that not only
overthrow the Islamic Republic regime, but also help to build a new society
that is the beginning of the emancipation of women and society from oppression
and exploitation.